While new immersive technologies are expected to significantly impact a variety of industries, retail could face the largest immediate transformation. Virtual and augmented reality headsets at the retail level could become the norm in as little as three years, suggests data from CCS Insight. According to Advertising Age, “Brands are in the early stages of using virtual reality to create fully immersive, contextual experiences that reach beyond existing physical and digital channels to create a very new, and very real, type of shopping experience: v-commerce.” The article offers the following strategic recommendations: Start playing and testing, focus on mobile-enabled VR, and integrate technology.

A recent Check Point Software survey determined that enterprise network vulnerabilities often result from the ease in which company employees can now connect their mobile devices to insecure wireless networks. The study suggests that the threat level increases with larger organizations. For example, companies that use 2,000 or more devices experience a 50 percent chance that at least six devices have become infected with malware (something to consider since 82 percent of companies now have a BYOD plan in place). Continue reading Mobile Devices Now the Largest Threat to Enterprise Security

The auto industry is combining its resources to address security issues in connected vehicles with a new alliance and anti-hacking hub. “Through the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers, automakers are working to establish an Information Sharing and Analysis Center to act as a secure, industry-wide clearinghouse for intelligence about cyberthreats to vehicles and their networks,” reports Automotive News. The Center will include representatives from major automakers, as well as associated vendors and telecom companies.

The LA Dodgers Accelerator program, in partnership with R/GA Ventures, kicks off this week with 10 startups “at the intersection of sports, technology, entertainment and media.” The 10 companies (selected from nearly 600 applicants from 34 countries) represent industry segments such as stadium management, mobile ordering, wearables and connected health software, according to TechCrunch. “Our definition of sports is much broader than just the major leagues; it touches on things like fan engagement and data analytics that really have a global application,” says Stephen Plumlee, managing director of R/GA Ventures.

Google recently unveiled a $200 app-controlled Wi-Fi router designed to manage home networks. The OnHub router is built in partnership with TP-LINK, and includes Bluetooth and ZigBee connectivity to communicate with smart home appliances. “It intelligently seeks ways to reduce Wi-Fi congestion, and lets you allocate bandwidth to devices that need it most, like your Netflix-streaming Roku or Apple TV,” The Wall Street Journal notes. “It can diagnose connection problems, distinguishing between what’s happening on your home network and what might be happening with your service provider.”

Cord cutting continues to impact the pay TV industry. According to a new report from Strategy Analytics, the top 20 cable and satellite TV providers lost 479,000 subscribers in the U.S. between April and June, while operators in Canada lost 53,000 customers, marking the highest rate of decline experienced thus far in North America. The report comes after the first net drop of pay TV subscribers for the first three months of a year, following a disappointing Q1. Additionally, digital IPTV subscriptions fell by 62,000 in the U.S. and 9,000 in Canada. Continue reading Pay TV Industry Loses 532,000 Subscribers in North America

GameFly’s $6.99 per month streaming game rental service is now available via select Samsung smart TVs. The Netflix-like service, which launched in June on Amazon Fire TV boxes, provides access to a bundle of seven games each month. “Game streaming has been an ambitious dream since the ill-fated days of Onlive, but the concept is starting to finally gain traction once again,” according to The Verge. “Gamefly is joining an increasingly crowded field that includes Nvidia’s Grid service, as well as PlayStation Now, which gives you access to more than 100 PS3 games for $19.99 a month.”

Sony plans to take on fitness trackers such as the Fitbit Charge and Polar Loop with the new SmartBand 2, a waterproof wearable device that monitors heart rate and sleep patterns in addition to delivering phone notifications. “The company already released the Android companion app, showing that you can pause your music, go to your previous or next track by tapping once or twice,” reports TechCrunch. “Sony also created a special feature that lets you monitor your stress level, or your level of excitement.” A night mode disables notifications and there is also an alarm clock. The $130 SmartBand 2 will hit shelves next month.

According to the new “Mobile Messaging and Social Media” report from the Pew Research Center, Facebook is now more than three times as popular as Twitter among adults in the U.S. The report notes that 72 percent of adult Internet users are on Facebook, while 31 percent use Pinterest, 28 percent use Facebook-owned Instagram, 25 percent use LinkedIn, and about 23 percent use Twitter. The figures represent slight increases over 2014 for Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest; no change for Twitter from the previous year; and a 3 percent decrease for LinkedIn. Continue reading Facebook Three Times as Popular as Twitter with Adult Users

According to a new report from Okta, Microsoft’s Office 365 has beaten Salesforce.com as the most widely used cloud application for businesses. Okta analyzed use of 4,000 cloud applications across 2,500 companies in 185 countries. The report notes that Box was the third-most widely deployed platform, followed by Google Apps and Concur. “Google for Work president Amit Singh has responded to Okta’s report saying via Twitter that the study focuses on large companies and has an emphasis on email services,” notes Re/code. “He says that if you expand the size of the sample, Google for Work and Dropbox would top the list.”

Authors United has submitted a request to the Department of Justice to investigate what the group describes as the “unprecedented power” Amazon has over the book publishing market. According to The Wall Street Journal, “The group formed last year in response to Amazon’s bruising negotiations with publisher Hachette Book Group, primarily over pricing. Led by author Douglas Preston, the group sent a letter to the DOJ that said Amazon has repeatedly blocked or limited the sale of thousands of books on its website, sold some books below cost to gain market share, and attempted to compel customers to buy books from its own imprints rather than from other companies.”

Google’s same-day delivery service, Google Express, plans to shutter its delivery hubs in San Francisco and Mountain View, California. “The move is part of a broader push within Google to revamp the service, which launched in March 2013,” reports Re/code. Google Express, currently in seven major cities, primarily delivers goods from retail and shipping partners, and has been experimenting with the hub model. Sources say the company is looking to address rising costs of drivers and vehicles by “outsourcing its delivery to other on-demand startups and has held initial talks with multiple companies, including Postmates and Flywheel.”

Comcast’s upcoming streaming video platform, dubbed Watchable, will reportedly offer content creators 70 percent of the advertising revenue generated from their videos. Short-form video creators for Facebook and YouTube generally earn about 55 percent of revenue. While Comcast does not necessarily plan to compete with social media sites, the company aims “to create a curated Web portal for semi-professional and professional Web video that could lure in a millennial audience,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “Comcast is planning to launch in beta in the coming weeks and release a more comprehensive service later this year.”

Comcast’s NBCUniversal is investing $200 million in Web publisher BuzzFeed as the two plan to explore partnerships across the organizations. One possibility, referenced in the press release, involves working together on Olympics coverage, although details have yet to be revealed. Last week, NBCU also put $200 million into BuzzFeed competitor Vox Media. The investments could be part of Comcast’s efforts to attract a younger audience that is drifting from traditional TV. “More than half of BuzzFeed’s 82.4 million unique visitors in July were between the ages of 18 and 34,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, more than 40 percent of the 54.4 million visitors to Vox websites last month were between 18 and 34.

Linux production environments can now leverage Nvidia’s recently introduced GRID technology to power VMware’s Horizon 6 for Linux and provide visual effects and animation artists anywhere, on any device, with virtual Linux workstations running their familiar high-end applications. Nvidia’s VP of Enterprise Marketing Greg Estes showed a virtual workstation running simulations in Maya on the SIGGRAPH floor in Los Angeles with the application, processors and Nvidia’s GRID and CUDA technologies installed in a data center hundreds of miles away in Northern California. Continue reading Linux to Go: Nvidia GRID Delivers Virtualization, Performance